Thursday, September 29, 2011

I was so happy the other day, when I found Italian plums in our commissary. They are kind of hard to find around here, so I made sure I snatched a whole bunch of them. We've mainly been eating them as a snack, but yesterday I turned some of them into a pie.

For the dough combine the following (cold) ingredients. You could do it by hand or do what I did and throw everything into the food processor.

I went around the garden to see what was going on. Things have definitely slowed down a lot, but there's still a little something to show. The Hydrangea still has a few blooms and what looks like rain on the leaves is actually only dew.
Ich bin dann mal gleich durch den Garten gelaufen um zu sehen was es noch so gibt. Ist deutlich weniger vorzuzeigen als im Sommer, aber hier und da gibt es doch noch etwas zu sehen. Die Hortensie hat noch ein paar Blueten, und was hier wie Regen aussieht war nur Morgentau.

Welcome to the jungle... (why should I be the only one with the Guns N' Roses song stuck in my head?) This is what one of the tomato beds looks like now, yes it's that sorry looking. None of the supports held up this year and I will definitely have to come up with something better next year.
Welcome to the jungle...(Ich will nicht die Einzige sein, die jetzt das Guns N' Roses Lied im Kopf hat.) So sieht mittlerweile das eine Tomatenbeet aus - ganz schoen traurig. Keiner der Tomatenkaefige oder Staebe hat dieses Jahr was getaugt und ich muss mir fuer naechstes Jahr definitiv etwas besseres einfallen lassen.

More lettuce in a different bed. Sown out the same day as the other lettuce, but not nearly as big as the other variety. We'll see if we'll get to harvest any of it...
Mehr Salat in einem anderen Beet. Am selben Tag ausgesaet wie der andere, aber dieser waechst nicht so gut. Mal sehen ob wir hiervon etwas ernten koennen.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

The kerchief is finished! I made it quite a bit bigger than the original pattern and used up pretty much all of the yarn for it. I love how it turned out and now I'm waiting for cooler weather so I can actually wear it.

This potholder was made out of leftover yarn from the slippers I made for Nadia last year. She outgrew the slippers and I was trying to see if I still had some yarn to make her another pair. Definitely not out of the same yarn, it was just enough to knit this potholder.

Yesterday I had a craving for bagels, so I whipped up a batch in the afternoon. They are very tasty, even if they are not as pretty as the store bought ones. Gotta keep working on making evenly shaped bagels...
Gestern hatte ich richtes Verlangen nach frischen Bagels, also habe ich "schnell" ein Rezept gebacken. Sie schmecken wirklich lecker, auch wenn sie nicht so schoen wie gekaufte Bagels aussehen. Ich muss das Formen wohl noch ein bissl ueben...

Monday, September 19, 2011

This year for my birthday, we did something a little different. We joined our friends and took part in the walk to cure diabetes. Their little 4 year old son was diagnosed last Christmas with Type 1 diabetes and since we know several other people dealing with this, we thought it was a very worthy cause to support.

Registration started at 12:30 and we all met up about 12:45. We were well fed with pizza, fruit and cookies for dessert and there were a few things to do before the walk. They had a bouncy castle, inflatable slide, face painting for the kiddos, old cars on display, the local radio station, live music and freebies here and there. Including our colorful glasses...

Nadia walking with our friends little one. He REALLY likes our girls and tried to walk with them most of the time. I have to give him credit, he didn't whine or cry and he did walk the entire 3 miles! (Believe me, there were some very unhappy kids we saw on this walk.)

Sunday, September 18, 2011

... time to ride in the trail of tears ride. This year was our third time participating in the ride and we had a great day with each other. We started out a little late and had several detours before we were able to get to the meeting place. Note to self: either leave earlier next time or take the alternate route to begin with!
Am Samstag war es wieder mal soweit, Zeit um bei der trail of tears Mottorrad Rally mitzumachen. Dieses Jahr war das dritte mal das wir dabei waren, und wir hatten einen tollen Tag miteinander. Angefangen hat der Tag mit einigen Umleitungen, da wir dieses Mal etwas spaeter losgefahren sind. Viele Strassen waren schon gesperrt und wir mussten bestimmt drei mal umdrehen bevor wir endlich am Treffpunkt angelangt sind. Muessen wir uns fuer's naechste mal merken, entweder eher losfahren, oder gleich die (nicht beschilderte) Umleitung fahren.

We were a little disappointed this time, not nearly as many outlandish motorcycles as last times participated in the ride. There were a few though...
Wir waren dieses mal ein bissl enttaescht, es waren gar nicht soviele aussergewoehnliche Motorraeder wie letztes mal dabei. Hier sind jedoch ein paar...

I LOVE his hood ornament!
Von dieser Kuehlerfigur war ich total begeistert!

This lady was dressed all in pink. What I really liked was her patch, which read: "Real women don't have hot flashes, they have power surges." I so have to remember that for my next "power surge". :-)
Diese Frau war total in pink ausgestattet. Was mir am besten gefallen hat war ihr patch, auf dem stand: "Echte Frauen haben keine Hitzewallungen, sie haben 'Kraftwogen'. " Muss ich mir fuer meine naechste Kraftwoge merken. :-)

This guy was at our stopping point in Florence, AL. Him and a few others were getting ready for their performance. We'd seen it before, and since we were starving by then, we decided to leave and go somewhere and eat.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Last year, fall break we went up to Oklahoma to visit Greg's parents. (Hi Lois and Charles!) While we were there, Charles showed me all the gourds he had grown during the summer and then gave me some to take home. (Thanks again!!) Well, up until now they just kinda sat in the garage and I did nothing with them. A few days ago, I had an idea though and here's what I did: Sorry, I completely forgot to take a picture of the gourd before I gutted it...

Here it is with the top cut off, the inside scraped and all of it sanded down.

With just the stain, I found the gourd to be lacking and a little boring, so I decided to add handles. For this I just cut up a hanger (from the dry cleaners) and wrapped the wire in jute. For the actual handle part, I used a bit of wood cut from one of the butterfly bushes. The wood was actually soft enough for the wire to be just pushed into it. No drilling needed! Added a little jute tassel and it was done.
Nur mit der Beize war mir der gourd etwas zu fad und langweilig, deshalb habe ich beschlossen einen Haenkel hinzumachen. Hierfuer habe ich einen Kleiderbuegel von der Reinigung benutzt. Den Draht habe ich in der richtigen Laenge zugeschnitten und dann mit Jute umwickelt. Fuer den Griff habe ich ein Stueck Holz von unseren Schmetterlingsbueschen benutzt. Das Holz war weich genug, so das ich nicht einmal bohren musste! Eine kleine Quaste aus Jute hat das Ganze dann noch vervollstaendigt.

Here is the gourd in it's new home, being used as a planter. I did line the gourd with foil to make sure it was protected from water. Better safe than sorry, right? So what do you think of the finished project?
Hier ist dann der fertige gourd den ich nun als Uebertopf benutze. Da ich mir nicht sicher war ob der gourd wasserdicht ist, habe ich ihn mit Folie ausgelegt. Lieber auf # sicher gehen, richtig? Was haltet ihr vom Endergebnis?

There are two more gourds in the garage waiting to be transformed, what to do, what to do...
In der Garage warten noch zwei gourds darauf umgewandelt zu werden. Was ich wohl mit ihnen anfangen kann?

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

If I would have followed the directions for this kerchief, I would actually be done already. For my liking, it would have been a bit too small though, that's why I'm going to keep repeating the pattern until I pretty much run out of yarn. Right now there are over 240 stitches on the needles, so it's taking a while to knit just one row. Having been diagnosed with either tendinitis or early onset of arthritis (depends on which doctor I want to listen to), I have to take it a little easier on the knitting as well. :-( NOT very happy about this...

I just started reading "The Paid Companion" by Amanda Quick. This was one of the books I got for 25 cents at the library and so far I really like it.

As always, please pay a visit to Ginny's and see what all the other yarn along participants are up to.

Monday, September 12, 2011

My birthday is not until next weekend, but my sweet "little" girl decided to surprise me Saturday. She took me out to dinner (just the two of us) and surprised me with a wonderful evening. A friend had helped her with the planning and also added a gift card (as my birthday present) to a restaurant. I had THE BEST TIME with my girl and enjoyed every minute of it!!

This was my second surpise, Hannah paid for us to go paddle boating! The boats actually have motors, but we decided to just paddle around. Had to work off the great food we just ate. ;-) It was so much fun!!!
Dies war meine zweite Ueberraschung, Hannah hat mich zum paddle boat fahren eingeladen! Die Boote haben sogar einen Motor, aber Hannah und ich hatten beschlossen nur zu paddeln. Schliesslich mussten wir das viele Essen wieder abarbeiten. ;-) Es hat soviel Spass gemacht!!!

I have to thank Hannah for an absolutely fabulous evening! We talked, we laughed, we got to hang out just the two of us - it was fantastic!
Ich muss mich bei Hannah fuer einen fantastischen Abend bedanken! Wir haben viel geredet, gelacht, konnten ein paar tolle Stunden miteinander verbringen - es war einfach klasse!!

About Me

I'm 46 years old and have been married to my hubby for 26 years. We have two wonderful girls, ages 16 and 18. I started this blog to stay in touch with our family and friends in Germany and here in the US. It's a little glimpse into our daily lives...